Scientific publications

The Ponoi river is the largest river system in the Kola Peninsula (Russia) and one of few salmon rivers in Europe, which still maintain stable and genetically pure Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) population comprising the summer- and autumn-run groups of several tens of thousands fish (Whoriskey et al., 2000; ICES, 2001). Atlantic salmon had been fished in the river since ancient times, but regular commercial fisheries commenced as late as the 16th century, when the Court of Patriarchy displayed interest in salmon fishery (Azbelev, 1966). Ponoi Atlantic salmon was fished both in the river and at the sea coastal netting stations with a great variety of fishing gears in use. Until 1964, fisheries were unregulated, and commercial harvest, which sometimes reached 120 tonnes, depended solely on the fishing effort and salmon abundance. Because unregulated harvesting both along the coast and throughout the river might deplete the stocks, concentrated fisheries were introduced since 1964, implying the installation of only one fishing gear – the fish counting fence, barring the river mouth bank to bank. The barrier fence was operated in such a manner that no less than 50 % of salmon entering the river were allowed to escape through it to reach the spawning areas. This was achieved by alternating one day of fishing with one day of escapement. Recreational fishing, mostly based on the "catch-and-release" principle, has been developing on the river since early 1990s. The development of this type of activity providing more economic benefits (Zubchenko et al., 1991) led to re-allocation of quotas among commercial in-river and recreational fisheries, reduction of commercial fishery effort and closure of fishery at the barrier fence in 1994. Since then, the fish fence has not been used any more, and all salmon can reach the spawning grounds freely. In this case the risk of undesirable and sometimes irreversible changes in the population is reduced to a minimum. For recreational fishing based on catch-and-release this provides an opportunity to fish the stock composed of pristine wild fish, with their abundance at its maximum for a given habitat.